The delicacy
Leonardo’s Palazzo, the lavish venue located on the North Shore of Long Island, New York City, which will play host to the grand celebration on March 4, 2023 of the 80th birthday of the Nigerian teacher, author, journalist, unstoppable intellectual and creative personality, the amazing Lolo Dorothy Chinaka Akujuo, is set to lay out a dinner banquet that will have the guests licking their fingers long after the memorable day.
The banquet which is to celebrate the exceptional lady who retired from the City University of New York as a Professor of English, will also feature the international Premiere of the epic movie, “My Birthright”, a story of the big clash of traditional Igbo culture faced with emerging European values in the 1960s. This story told by the amazing Lolo Dorothy Akujuo, has been shot in living colour and will be on the big screen, for the first time, on March 4.
It is the desire of the grand lady that all the guests be treated with respect and fed like Royalty.
Leonardo’s Palazzo’s venue for Akujuo’s 80th birthday bash
During the Cocktail Hour, there will be on offer Cold Display Stations with Fresh Mozzarella, Yellow and red tomatoes and basil leaves drizzled with virgin olive oil.
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The Insalata di Mare will feature light seafood salad with olive oil, lemon, garlic and basil.
There will also be Cold Antipasto Salad with the best Gemelli pasta, Genoo salami and pesto to be found anywhere.
There will be Seasonal market fresh fruits and berries, Baby Spinach, Israeli couscous, grape tomatoes and dried cranberries.
Akujuo
At the carving stations, there will be hot and mouth-watering Herb Roasted Turkey with Pan Gravy marinated Grilled Flank Steak or if you wish, New York Style Corned Beef accompanied by mustard Beef Top Round with Horseradish Cream and Shallot Demi Glaze.
For those in love with chicken, chicken will come in different forms: Marsala, Francoise, Cacciatore, Piccata, Honey-Dipped Fried, Jerk chicken, etc.
And if your thing is Seafood, look out for Stuffed Sole Florentine, Salmon Puttanesca, Oven Baked Tilapia Provencal and Salmon Terayaki.
If you are not yet titillated, there will also be servings of Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes, Vegetable Rice Pilaf, Jollof Rice and Nigerian Fried Rice topped of course, with varied vegetables and Fresh Baked Dinner Rolls with Sweet Butter.
As the event draws near, friends, family and colleagues of Lolo Dorothy Akujuo, are getting ready to walk the red carpet in style and take sensational photographs as they arrive for the splendid Dinner Banquet to celebrate the eventful life of the evergreen lady.
The event is also expected to bring the cream of Nollywood to New York for the International Premiere of “My Birthright”.
Arrangements are ongoing to show the incredible video animation of Lolo Dorothy Akujuo’s enchanting book, Tortoise Tales, for the first time, at the Grand Celebration.
An expected highlight of the show will be a big live performance of AJ Warrior, the look-alike son of the great Sir (Dr) Warrior Obinna, the unforgettable Igbo philosopher singer of the Oriental Brothers fame, who with his many memorable songs lifted the spirits of millions of Igbo people after the Nigeria/ Biafra War.
Ajuzieogu Obinna, better known as AJ Warrior, whose talent replicates that of his father, Dr (Sir) Warrior who passed on in 1999, has again raised his hand and promised that the show in New York will be “gbamistic” and that the guests will rock like never before to the original and unadulterated Igbo Highlife Music of the musical prophet, Sir Warrior.
